One of the enduring mysteries of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case is the little-known but well-documented and indisputable fact that Timothy McVeigh and the “others unknown” involved in the bombing used two different Ryder trucks in the later stages of the bombing plot.
What happened to this second truck, where it was obtained (FBI documents indicate that the bureau may have believed it was purchased at auction—more on those documents in a moment), and its final purpose remain unknown today.
Dozens of witnesses in Kansas observed two distinctly different Ryder trucks between April 11 and April 18—both parked at Geary Lake and the Dreamland Motel. One of the trucks was smaller, frequently described as “faded yellow,” with either no visible Ryder logo or one that was barely visible, and with a cab-overhang on the front of the truck. This detail would also capture the attention of the FBI, who began asking witnesses whether the truck they saw had the cab-overhang and showed them a Ryder company flyer depicting several trucks, asking which type they had observed.
The other of the two trucks was described as much larger—the 20-foot model—and by witnesses as “cleaner” and “newer,” even “more aerodynamic.” This was the truck rented from Elliott’s body shop on April 17 and ultimately used to deliver the bomb.
The second truck, with a few exceptions, is generally omitted from most contemporary accounts of the bombing, yet its existence is confirmed in numerous FBI documents.
A half dozen people at the Dreamland Motel—where McVeigh stayed the week before the bombing—place McVeigh parking the smaller Ryder truck at the Dreamland Motel on Easter Sunday and Friday and Saturday—days before the larger bomb truck was rented at Elliott’s on Monday, April 17.
Consider the following account from Apache helicopter mechanic Shane Boyd, who stayed in room #28 at the Dreamland Motel for several weeks in April 1995 while working at nearby Ft. Riley. Boyd told FBI SA Mark Bouton that around 6:00 AM on Friday, April 14, he saw a Ryder truck with a steel-framed trailer pull out of the Dreamland Motel’s parking lot. Boyd also told the FBI that he is sure he saw the Ryder truck parked at the Dreamland Motel again on Saturday and on Easter Sunday.
Consider the accounts of Dreamland residents David King and his mother, Herta King. Both Kings saw the smaller Ryder truck the weekend before the bomb truck’s rental. FBI special agents Robert Knox and Leslie Gardner interviewed David King on April 27 about activities at and around the motel. David told the FBI that on Easter Sunday, his mother visited him at the Dreamland around half past noon. King stated that both he and his mother saw a yellow Ryder truck parked directly in front of his room that Sunday afternoon.
Herta King later testified at the McVeigh trial that she saw the Ryder truck parked at the Dreamland on Easter Sunday. She stated that she was friends with the motel owner, Lea McGown, and that they had discussed the truck being there on Easter Sunday. King said that Lea McGown told her, “it doesn’t make sense that a truck was there on Sunday, if McVeigh rented it on Monday.”
Indeed, it doesn’t make sense. McVeigh rented a truck on Monday, April 17, yet we have a half dozen witnesses who saw a yellow moving truck with McVeigh prior.
